Who do you want to be next? The art of values based career planning

This recent article from The Muse, suggesting you should follow your strengths and consider your contribution to the world, rather than pursue your passion, really resonated with me. I wonder where we have come to that the idea of pursuing your passion is all consuming and fruitless? Is this simply semantics with the wording or is it more of the zeitgeist of the career world; a sign of the times that the choices we are presented with and our expectations are just too wide?

The core for me is that people have forgotten their childhood dreams – once upon a time we knew what we wanted to be when we “grew up”; mine was being a Nanny (as in childcare not Grandma!), then in my teenage years, a hairdresser and beauty therapist.

As we can see from my LinkedIn profile my career path has travelled in a different direction:

Psychology Degree
Recruitment
Project and Change Management
Leadership and Coaching

But what if we take a moment and consider what the common threads are across all of these career elements: working with people, making a difference, support and specialist knowledge. All of which, you can apply to childcare and hairdressing! When you are a child you are inspired into a career; there is no strategy or drive for materialist gain. It is how that career makes you feel, how you picture your life, that someone you admire does the same job.

Often when I speak to a client who is unsure of their next steps, I ask them to move away from the job titles and salary, and consider how they want their role to make them feel. Do they want to feel like a specialist, do they want to feel useful, do they want to feel challenged? Next what values are important to them; security (i.e. job / financial), adventure, prestige or community?

Both these elements (values and feelings) can help them focus on which direction to go in and help them narrow down their search. If community and challenge is important, over security, than maybe a growing social enterprise is the way to go. If prestige and challenge, maybe a Director’s position within a well know Blue Chip?

Too often job seeking and career planning is too restricted; people will define themselves through a job title and not consider the value they bring to an organisation and how the job supports their self-image.

So next time you are looking for a role, step away from the salary filters and job titles and ask yourself “Who do I want to be next?”